Scopes Monkey Trial: John Washington Butler, the Tennessee farmer and legislator who wrote the anti-evolution law under which John Scopes was tried and found guilty in Dayton, says that he is happy with the guilty verdict but thinks that the fine should have been higher.

Scopes was fined the minimum, $100 ($1,240 in 2010 dollars). The maximum fine under the Butler anti-evolution act is $500 ($6,230 in 2010 dollars).

John Butler says:

"I am well satisfied with the verdict of guilty, but I think a fine of $500 would have been more in keeping with the gravity of the offense.

This has not been a test case of the law. Other school teachers who violate will be brought to trial and fined.

As for myself, I am busy now reading evolution, but so far I have learned nothing that makes me disbelieve my Bible."